Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 January 1907 — TO MAKE SWAMPS USEFUL. [ARTICLE]

TO MAKE SWAMPS USEFUL.

Under Proposed Plan They Would Blossom as the Rose. An effort will be made during the present session of Congress to commit the federal government to the policy of draining swamp lands all over the country and Senator Flint of California will be one of its leaders. The Senator has prepared 'a bill providing for the drainage of all swamp lands under the auspices of government engineers. The measure provides for the creation of a. fund fqr conducting the drainage operations on the* installment plan, Congress to appropriate a million or two dollars every rear until the sum of $lO,000,000 or $20,000,000 is on hand. As land is reclaimed frqjn a submerged or partially submerged condition, the bill will provide for its sale, and the proceeds therefrom will be converted into the drainage fund. This .is similar to the plan under which the national reclamation or irrigation law operates. The vastness of the project involved in the. Flint bill can be understood when it is stated that the total area of swamp lands in the United States is roughly 75,000,000 acres, or about 120,000 square miles. This is over half as large as the whole German empire and greater than the~area of most States in the Union. Virginia and New Jersey contain a large part ot aie total in the Dismal swamp and the Hoboken flats. There is some swamp land in New England, but less than elsewhere, qp account of the generally hilly character of the ground. Michigan contains nearly 6,000,000 acres of swamp lands, Minnesota contains more than that. There are about 4,000,000 acres in the Sacramento valley, alone. The estimated area of the Everglades swamp in Florida is 7,000,000 acres.